Botany & Russia's Peter the Great (1672–1725)
Peter the Great (1672–1725), tsar (from 1682, governed from 1689) & the first emperor (from 1721) of Russia, began the westernization of Russia, greatly increasing Russian power & developing relationships with the rest of the Europe. He won a victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700–1721), added territories along the Baltic coast, & founded St. Petersburg (1703), the capital of Russia between 1712 & 1918.
Peter was interested in the development of botany as well as other kinds of natural history in Russia, mainly to meet military needs. He made a personal herbarium collection (apparently lost) in Moscow and even planted here 3 trees (Abies, Larix, and Picea — Shevyrev 1855 — of which one, Larix sibirica, still survives). the Moscow Apothecary Garden. He established many new institutions, including St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1724), Moscow Apothecary Garden (1706), & St. Petersburg Apothecary Garden (1713 or 1714).
During the reign of Peter the Great, efforts were made to introduce the practice of western medicine into Russia. However, a consideration of the plants used for healing purposes shows that strong Western influences can be traced back to the earliest written records. Russia's early plant books were often compilations based on Greco-Roman texts. The plants used in medical regulations were often identical to those of medieval medicine in the West. Some of these plants were native to Russia, others were not. Pharmaceutical needs have been met by collecting wild plants, growing medicinal plants & trading with the West.
